Late Night Schoolin’ – Rare Book Style

Just fell into bed with my computer; it’s the end of day two at the Rare Book School (RBS) in hot and humid Charlottesville, VA. I’m here taking a course in the History of European and American Papermaking taught by Tim Barrett and John Bidwell, two guys who know a thing or two about paper. There are sixteen people taking this course and it is just one of six courses being taught on campus this week. It’s like summer camp for adults and everyone is talking books and bibliography, paper and typography. I am in my happy place – big time.

Our days are split into four sessions, each lasting an hour and a half. In the morning we have one session led by Tim and one by John. These are lectures that sometimes include illustrative videos of papermaking processes from around the world. In the afternoon we do papermaking exercises with Tim and then have either a lecture or session in Special Collections with John. We have covered so much ground in two days – I’ll list the session topics to give you an idea of the reams of information we are processing (reams get it?! Yes. . .I truly am that tired.):

Papyrus, vellum and other writing surfaces, invention of papermaking in China, Islamic papermaking

Historiography: discussion of recent trends in paper history, and books about paper and watermarks

And, because 8-9 hours aren’t enough, the Rare Book School offers activities in the evenings to allow us all to keep geeking out. Last night was a lecture by Nancy Tomasko about five traditional papermaking areas of China and the people and practices she encountered on her many travels there. Tonight was movie night where they fed us popcorn and ice cream sundaes during a double feature: Linotype: The Film and Tradition and Traditional Paper Sheet Formation Around the World, 1976-2002. After the films we participated in a type ornament demonstration by John Kristensen and Katherine Ruffin, the instructors of another RBS course called The History of 19th- and 20th- Century Typography and Printing. Todd Samuelson, my classmate and Director of Texas A&M Univeristy Library’s Book History Workshop, and I made a piece of Dard Hunter fan art, taking our inspiration from some ornamental type that we saw earlier that day in Hunter’s book, Papermaking by Hand in America.

Demonstration of development in mould design. The woven screen gets moved to the top and is secured with deckle sticks.

With the screen on top, the mould can now be dipped into a vat with suspended fibers.

The screen is removed from the mould and the sheet is transferred to a felt.

After pressing, Tim Barrett shows how the sheets can be brushed on a window to dry.

European papermaking. Hogging the vat (i.e. agitating the fiber and water to evenly distribute the fibers).

Pulling a sheet from the pulp slurry.

The papers are transferred from the mould to the felt.

Sample book showing the end sheet variation at different lengths of beating flax fiber. The fiber for the bottom sheet was beat for less than one hour. The fiber for the top sheet was beat for 8.5 hours.

John Bidwell lecturing in class.

This is a copy of ‘Art de faire le papier’ by Joseph Jérôme Jen Le Français de Lalande.

14th century Chinese currency printed on paper made from mulberry bark.